Carson's 7th

What started off as a really stressful day turned out beautifully. Friday morning I woke up to dark cloudy skies and a forecast of thunderstorms in the afternoon. I worried all morning that Carson's birthday party was going to be ruined on account of the weather. But, just like that, the skies parted and the sun came out. At 1700 hours (it was an Army party after all) the guests arrived and the party began. The kids swam and played and and enjoyed a great game of "capture the flag" with water balloons. This was definately a highlight for all involved. Here are the boys learning the rules.



After several rounds of this game, we had to get a quick birthday song in before the sun went down. Everyone liked Carson's army cake. It was chocolate with chocolate icing, my favorite. I figured that if I was the one choosing the cake then I got to choose what I liked.


No sooner had the kids eaten their weight in hotdogs and cake, then they were back in the pool for more swimming. As Emme is just one of the boys, she stayed in the pool until it was too dark for me to count heads anymore. I ordered everyone out and they spent the next couple of hours playing in the yard with flashlights. Although I had set up a big tent for the overnight campout, the kids ended up sleeping (and I use this term loosely) in my mom's TV room. I checked in on them a couple of times, broke up a fight or two and evidently kicked my nephew Jake out of the room at some point. I am a little sketchy on the details of why he got the boot as I become somewhat incoherent when I am deprived of sleep. I do remember begging for the boys to go to sleep about 1:30 a.m. and explaining to them that I had actually become dizzy with exhaustion. At some point, they must have given out because the next thing I know it was morning.

And by morning, I mean the crack of dawn morning. Someone should really study the metabolism of little boys because they evidently do not require any discernable amounts of restorative sleep to get going at full blast again. Dobie brought in doughnuts and juice and the boys (and girl cousins) dined outside.



And then it was back in the pool until the parents came in about 11:00 a.m. All in all it was a great party and Carson reached his goal of $100 birthday dollars. I don't exactly know why this was his goal, but he has equated $100 with true kid wealth. I am glad that he had a good birthday and I am super duper glad that it is over.